Indeed, researchers from the University of Western Australia, in partnership with CSIRO, the Technical University of Denmark, and the University of Exeter claim to have developed a mining technique that does not involve digging up ore at all.

The jointly produced report claims miners could use electric fields to extract metals from hard rock ore, without any digging methods. The technology is called electrokinetics and in-situ leaching, EK-ISL.

In-situ leaching is already being applied to uranium mining.

However, CSIRO a said the applications of EK-ISL could be used in copper, gold and even nickel mining.

The process involves installing electrodes deep within an ore body and applying electric currents to induce transportation of metals such as copper through the host rock to the surface.

"The technique could replace the traditional method of digging which results in significant costs to the environment," the CSIRO said.

Researchers from UWA hope to have pilot trials up and running within three years but are yet to physically implement their process physically.

Electrokinetics as metals extraction technique is already being used to clean up metal-contaminated sites in Denmark. Commercialising it for the mining sector is the next challenge.

Speaking to Australia's Mining Monthly this week, lead researcher professor Henning Prommer, said while the technology was only developed using computer modelling, he was "quite optimistic".

He said the technology could be implemented at stranded copper and metals projects.

"At this stage we have performed successful experiments with gold, copper and zinc, but we do not see any showstoppers to applying [the tech] to other commodities such as nickel or lithium," Prommer said.

"It would obviously not be applicable to mine iron, given that iron represents a large fraction of the ore material."

The study was published by CSIRO and subsequently in the journal Science Advances.

Prommer said he had received "very good support from the mining industry" to date.

The research has been supported by BHP, Newmont, Newcrest, Evolution Mining, and the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia.